Jo Nesbo Collection Pack a Harry Hole Mystery Set: Redbreast, Nemesis, the Devils Star, the Redeemer, the Snowman, the Leopard, Headhunters

Hunstanworth Village Hall Book Group received copies of Jo Nesbo's 'The Snowman' from Vintage via Reading Groups fro Everyone/RGFE. This review therefore reflects that book from the Harry Hole series of novels.
'The Snowman' is the seventh novel in the Harry Hole detective series, a Norwegian detective who is a 'loose cannon with few close friends, a problem with alcohol and some unorthodox methods'.
This book tells the story of a serial killer who strikes when the first snow falls leaving a snowman as their 'signature'. Women disappear, bodies are not always found, and the apparent link between the murders is that the women all have children who are not the biological children of the registered fathers, and Harry Hole has been targeted by the killer to discover his true identity.
This is a fairly long novel (550 pages), which was was off putting for some book group members.
The storyline is quite dark as in usual Scandi Noir fiction and some of the group were unable to get to the end of the book as it caused nightmares!
Those who finished the story enjoyed the twists and turns and found the red herrings added to the intrigue. Although two members had previously read the book some years ago they'd forgotten who the killer was until the final reveal...is this the sign of a 'good story 'when readers can't remember the ending, or the sign of 'good writing' that there are enough plot twists to throw you off a track you've once trod?
Our rating: there were quite divided scores for this book.
As expected those who found it too dark and scary gave low scores - 1 out of 5, and those who like this type of novel scored highly - 4 and 4.5 out of 5.
A couple of members gave middling scores as they declared 'The Snowman' well written, but weren't convinced by the genre.

For reference we only read The Devils Star.

This novel was the second thriller we've read in a row and everyone agreed that this was something we should avoid for next time as it may have jaded our view. We all felt that we've had enough of thrillers for a little while!

This month we had a selection of questions to use which came in very handy for focusing our discussions. Question sets are an invaluable resource for bookclubs.

Many of the bookclub members do not as a rule read crime, whereas some of the bookclub are more hardened crime readers. This caused a bit of a divide in the group with some people really enjoying the novel and others finding it a bit too basic for them. We all agreed that this would be an excellent starting point for someone new to the crime genre. However, we all felt that thrillers in general are not built for the kind of scrutiny that our bookclub gives its books.

It was a fairly formulaic novel, as crime novels go, which aggravated some readers but others felt this was almost comforting in its certainty of what would be coming next. We felt that it was very linear in its movement from one scene to the next, this might make it a better film than it was a book. There are certain scenes, for example the party, that we really could see as a film.

We all felt very sorry for Karin and the things she had to go through both before and during this book. However, there was a little too much focus on her depression and suicidal tendencies for us not to feel a bit annoyed with her at times. The changes in the relationship between Karin and Mac was interesting to follow, although it was a little odd at times, eg. during the ComiCon scenes.

Overall this was a book that we mostly enjoyed, but not as a bookclub selection. We gave this book an average of 6 out of 10. Many of the bookclub copies have been lent to others, meaning this was a book people had enjoyed!